I know lots of non technically inclined people who use software every day. Most of them have no idea what free software is. If you asked them, they say it's software they don't have to pay for.
If you explained it to them, they wouldn't care. They neither care about not want the control and freedom granted by free software, nor are they going to start wanting it even if we spell out for them why it would benefit them. They'll take it if it means no effort or sacrifice on their part, but they're not going to ask for it or advocate for it or fight for it in any way.
What the grandparent was saying is that the vast majority of people neither care about nor want the additional control they'd have in a free software ecosystem. And I think he or she is correct.
It's not just free software, but the ability to control which set of binaries you use. The final straw that pushed me away from iOS devices was when the ability to pack and backup apps from devices was removed in iOS 8 (IIRC). Case in point, I had been holding out on a particular build of official twitter app for iPad (ver4.3.2) for some time as I detest the subsequent major updates for being ugly and hard to use. From that point onwards if I lose that signed copy stored on my computer it is goodbye forever since I won't be able to pull it from my tablet if I wanted to.
Maybe I overreacted since there is a good chance that I was in voilation of whatever EULA I have agreed to, or the app might be broken by another random update but enough was enough.
I know lots of non technically inclined people who use software every day. Most of them have no idea what free software is. If you asked them, they say it's software they don't have to pay for.
If you explained it to them, they wouldn't care. They neither care about not want the control and freedom granted by free software, nor are they going to start wanting it even if we spell out for them why it would benefit them. They'll take it if it means no effort or sacrifice on their part, but they're not going to ask for it or advocate for it or fight for it in any way.
What the grandparent was saying is that the vast majority of people neither care about nor want the additional control they'd have in a free software ecosystem. And I think he or she is correct.